Japanese shipping operating as usual

Japan’s shipping ports have escaped much of the chaos and damage of nearby factories and businesses in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

So plentiful are alternative import/export facilities south of Tokyo that damaged port infrastructure will not be a major challenge to Japan's international supply chains in the months ahead. 

Japan's ports handled 19m teu of containers last year. The ports that are currently shut-off handled around 7 percent of this figure.

The issue at hand is less the ports, but the factories. Hitachi Ltd, Daikin Industries and dozens of other companies have important factories near where the tsunami struck.

"I don't think the earthquake or tsunami will have a serious impact on the overall container market in Japan," said Truong Bui, a Japan container expert at Drewry Shipping Consultants.

"The short-term impact on economic activity could be greater than after the Kobe earthquake," said Jiyun Konomi, Tokyo-based analyst with Nomura Securities, referring to the 1995 disaster which killed 6,000 people.

"Following the Kobe earthquake . . . activity did not return to pre-earthquake levels within three months for freight transportation.

I would contend that while this year's earthquake was far larger than 1995's -- the earlier one struck in a far more pivotal centre for the Japanese economy,” Konomi said.

Tokyo and all ports south of Japan's capital are operating normally, while the rest of the country's ports are being assessed for damage.

Alarmingly we hear reports that dozens of terminals in the Asian region, including Shanghai and Singapore, have installed Geiger counters to scan all Japanese cargoes.

The fallout from this devastation will take months to clear, but importantly from the physical infrastructure point of view Japanese shippers do have plenty of options.

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